IN THE MEDIA

Nobel Prize-winning chemical engineer Professor Mario Molina is to visit King’s College London on 22 June. Professor Molina, who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1995, will discuss his work on ‘Climate Change: Science, Policy & Risks’ at a special event as he receives an honorary degree from the university.

A new study out of Harvard University reveals that the protective stratospheric ozone layer above the central United States is vulnerable to erosion during the summer months from ozone-depleting chemical reactions, exposing people, livestock and crops to the harmful effects of UV radiation.

Many in the chemical industry were initially opposed and even attempted to discredit the Nobel Prize winning science of Paul Crutzen, Mario Molina, and Sherwood Rowland. Their work was fundamental in identifying why Ozone was being decomposed. Weather Underground’s Dr. Jeff Masters previously wrote an excellent summary of the skeptic tactics during this period.

“With Trump indicating that he will withdraw from climate change leadership, the rest of the global community is looking to California, as one of the world’s largest economies, to take the lead,” said Mario Molina, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist from Mexico who advises nations on climate change policy. “California demonstrates to the world that you can have a strong climate policy without hurting your economy.”

Mario J. Molina’s Nobel Prize winning quest began with a question: what happens to chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs—man-made chemicals used to cool refrigerators and in aerosol sprays and plastic foams—when they are released into the atmosphere?

“What is very worrisome is that extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and heavy rains, are now much more common,” said Molina, who also serves as a climate policy adviser to Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. After all, some of the additional energy, or heat that the planet is now absorbing, “is going to the oceans” and that is changing “the energy balance of our planet.”

“The message they are sending to the rest of the world is that they don’t believe climate change is serious. It’s shocking to see such a degree of ignorance from the United States,” said Dr Mario J. Molina, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist from Mexico who advises nations on climate change policy.

“Just as there is no escaping gravity when one steps off a cliff, there is no escaping the warming that follows when we add extra carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere,” the scientists wrote. The group included Nobel laureate chemist Mario Molina of the University of California, San Diego, and eight members of the National Academies of Science.